Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-09-23
PAsADENA'S SEWERAGE.
MIR. Bishops Epistle to the Pasa-
denn Sanitary Engineer.


On Saturday we referred editorially
| to the letter written by Mr.. Bishop, O
San Francisco, to our Sanitary Engi
| neer, Mr.. August Mayer. By the
courtesy of President Parker, of the
City Trustees, and City Clerk Saw.
telle, we are permitted to publish this
communication, which requires nc
comment further than we have al
seady given, except to say that if oul
population had contained many men
OF Mr.. Bishops stamp the Pasadena
and Southern California OF to-day
would never have been:
SAN Francisco, August 10.-Aug.
Mayer, ESD, Engineer, Sir:-Your
long communication came by due
course of mail. Your letter has con-
vinced me that it would be a great
injustice to permit the "neat, hand
some and blooming garden" which
YOU propose to be taken away from
Pasadena. Why it should be neces-
sary to preserve the lives of the
''hcalth-seekers" to take such a de-
sirable adjunct away from that already
beautiful city cannot conceive after
reading your very eloquent (if truth
full description of this delightful ne
cessitv of modern civilization. Ii,
however, the sewerage The gentleman
evidently means sewage.-ED. is such
an important thing to get rid of,
know of no reason why your neighbors
should be compelled to wear clothes
pin on their noses and indulge in the
luxury of zymotic diseases in order to
make Pasadena healthy. l should be
quite willing to join in any compre-
hensivo system of sewerage which
would relieve Pasadena and at the
same time not injure her neighbors.
But permit me to say, that before
ever voluntarily give right of way
for the purpose asked by you, the
present citizens of Pasadena will all
be older than the veteran North Caro-
linian who has Just celebrated his one
hundred and sixth birthday. Science
is, no doubt, great thing, but you
are wasting it on me.
And now, since you have so kindly
given me so much gratuitous informa-
ton upon the science of sewerage,
will take the liberty of giving you a
little gratuitous legal advice. There
are such institutions in this country as
Courts of Chancery, and before Pasa-
dena succeeds in pouring her sewer
age upon her neighbors she will have,
no doubt, to convince one or more of
those courts that a dumping-grourd
and wholesale cesspool in the middle
of the great San Gabriel valley will be
an unmixed blessing and a Joy un-
speakable. Don't you think it will
take good many scientific witnesses
to convince Court of ordinary COM
mon sense that the filthy boon you
propose 80 graciously to bestow is a
blessing in disguise.
make no doubt that if Pasadena
persists in her present plans she will
ultimately find that she has wasted a
great deal of good money to no better
purpose than to get into a very useless
and expensive quarrel with her neigh
bors in what you must excuse me for
thinking is not only a wholly imprac-
tical and impossible, but also very
dirty and very foolish scheme.
Inasmuch as Pasadena seems to
have spent some money in trying to
convince herself that an open cesspool
in the middle Of the valley would be
better than altar of roses if only made
large enough, would it not be advisa-
BILE for her next to get a little good
legal advice concerning the law OF
nuisances.
l trust this latter course will De
taken. Meanwhile remain,
Yours, ETC., THos. B. BISHOP.